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Both ACT Treasury and the ACT Libs fail the due diligence test (and perhaps high school arithmetic)

The crimes reports that ACT treasury has bungled up the election promise costings of the Libs to the tune of 18m…

In the CT article, Brendan Smyth was quoted saying ”Andrew Barr’s own department is thousands of dollars out on their calculations of staff costs at different levels, and should they apply this to the ACT public service, the total underestimation is $18 million.”

OK, fair call… ACT Treasury has failed to double check their work.

But some of the blame surely has to fall back on whoever it was in the ACT Liberal camp that didn’t double check the treasury costings themselves doesn’t it?

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Having seen other things released by Treasury, I’m not surprised that it contained errors, it’s fairly standard for them. I wouldn’t put much weight on the costings from them for any side of politics, it’s just going to be a guesstimate.

But johnboy, didn’t you know that the only function of opposition in the Westminster system is to say, “no” and dig up dirt about the Government members? It is not their job to scrutinize policy, double-check figures and keep the bastards honest.

Yes and no. But in this case we’re talking about pricing the cost of election promises so it’s more of a question of competence to sit on the Treasury benches. Although I always think it’s a little unfair as the Government of the day has access to a large team of experts so should always appear to far better at it.

Grail said :

And besides, they are Liberals, which means they need accountants to do something as simple as a single-source income tax return.

Given that about 80% of tax payers use an agent I wouldn’t be too surprised if they did.

But johnboy, didn’t you know that the only function of opposition in the Westminster system is to say, “no” and dig up dirt about the Government members? It is not their job to scrutinize policy, double-check figures and keep the bastards honest.

And besides, they are Liberals, which means they need accountants to do something as simple as a single-source income tax return.

Amendments to give renters more rights have passed the Legislative Assembly. It will be easier for renters to keep a pet, make minor modifications to their rental property, and to break a lease without incurring significant costs https://t.co/UG9YEv9ilQ(7 hours ago)